Tag: Blogger

Since the Pittsburgh Penguins took Marc-Andre Fleury first overall in the 2003 NHL Entry Draft, making him just the third goalie taken first overall in the draft (behind Michel Plasse in 1968 and Rick DiPietro in 2000) and also the last goalie taken first overall, 18 other goaltenders have gone in the first round of the draft since.

The trend for taking goaltenders in the first round is dying out. Jake Oettinger was the lone goaltender taken in the first round last year by the Dallas Stars, while goalies had to wait until the Philadelphia Flyers took Carter Hart in the second round of the 2016 draft as the first goalie taken that year.

In the mid-2000s it did seem a bit more of a trend for teams to take who they hoped would be their future shot stopper in the first round.

There’s only a matter of days to go until the 2018 World Juniors get underway in Buffalo, New York, and while a lot of focus will be on the big countries and skaters already drafted into the NHL, it’s always good to focus on some of the players who are yet to be drafted, and will be looking to make their case for a higher draft ranking, or for most just put up a little bit of a challenge against the consensus number one overall pick in 2018, Rasmus Dahlin.

So without further ado, he’s the list of Group B for you to get familiar with some prospects names, but also with Christmas a few days away, feel free to use this article (and the one on Group A that will be coming soon) as an opportunity to stare blankly at your device of choice in an effort to avoid awkward family conversations.

It’s never nice to be proven wrong, but whenever it comes to me writing down opinion or prediction I’m used to it. I do Mock Drafts ahead of the NHL Draft each year and I’d hate to see my accuracy record on that. I’ve predicted every first overall pick (this year I’m 100% sure I’ll be wrong) but outside of that I’m usually quite a bit off with some picks.

And I was wrong again with an article I wrote a little over a year ago. During the 2016 Stanley Cup Playoffs the NHL Draft Lottery took place and the Toronto Maple Leafs retained the first overall pick.

The article I wrote in response was titled “Winning the draft lottery won’t speed up the Leafs rebuild”

I figured out why I’ve been upgraded three times now (more on the third one later). My seat up in the 300 section is the opposite side to the TV camera’s, so they’re moving a bunch of people down so theres more people in the seats the cameras show and then the arena doesn’t look as empty as it has been.

But anyway, my last full day started as normal, woke up, shower, grabbed breakfast then come back to the room to write the latest blog entry before heading out.

With the Quarter-Finals of the 2017 IIHF World Junior Championship getting underway, the penultimate game in Toronto’s Air Canada Centre was the early game of the day, starting a 1pm. So I left my hotel around 11:40 for the 20 minute walk down to watch the Russians take on Denmark. I thought if I got there early enough I’d have a greater chance at my seat being upgraded but this game was actually pretty well sold so I stayed up in the 300s.

DISCLAIMER – THIS ENTRY IS NOT ABOUT THE BAND COLD WAR KIDS, YOU’LL UNDERSTAND THE TITLE IF YOU KEEP READING
So I decided to treat myself to a lie in this morning, so I didn’t get up until about 10am, have a shower and just relax for the rest of the morning.

What I did forget to do was put the “Do Not Disturb” sign on the door, I don’t think she really expected to walk in to a room with a guy watching sportscentre in a towel, but by her reaction she may as well have walked in on me watching a very different kind of show.

I made sure I left my hotel with my hood up just in case she saw me again.

In the latest edition of Across The Pond I revisit a topic I spoke about last month where I predicted that both the Edmonton Oilers and Toronto Maple Leafs would both improve this season but only slightly.

Tonight the 2015 NHL Draft first overall pick Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers take on the 2016 NHL Draft first overall pick Auston Matthews and the Toronto Maple Leafs face off for the first of two meetings between the sides this season.

Both teams have vastly different experiences early in the 2016-17 season, watch below as I talk about tonight’s meeting at the season ahead.

I hope you enjoyed this latest video, more written content is coming (once this goes up I will be starting a new article).